Yes, that is Iggy Pop and not Tareq and Michaele Salahi on the red carpet at Pure. (If you will note the lack of a shirt and jeans both disqualify poor Iggy from getting into Vegas nightclubs like Pure.) Interestingly, Pure canceled the red carpet for the couple; yet, the duo were still retained  as hosts on Saturday night. No explanation was offered in the e-mail sent to press canceling the red carpet.

But Norm Clarke interviewed Pure officials who claimed that “unprecedented media interest” was the reason behind the cancellation. One Pure manager worried about pedestrian gridlock at Caesars Palace. For that to be true the media interest in the two White House party crashers would have to be greater than–off the top of my head— all of these celebrities who Pure has been able to host on a red carpet:

Kim  Kardashian, Jenny McCarthy, Fergie, Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and Pete Wentz , Lindsay Lohan, Christina Aguilera, Carmen  Electra, Ashanti, Pam Anderson, Sean “Diddy” Combs,  Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Mariah Carey

So, I don’t find the “too much interest” excuse plausible. Certainly, even if true, Pure could have approved some media and denied others as space allowed; they do this for every other event. Also, the entire point of hosting is to get attention. The red carpet is integral to that goal for two reasons: spectacle and press. The media is asked usually to arrive an hour early so tourists in the casino will notice the red carpet packed with media (and, perhaps go into the club). Then there are the photos from the red carpet the media distributes nationally.

I would be interested in what other reasons the red carpet for Mr. and Mrs. Salahi might have been canceled? I suspect it was wariness of plunging into that line between celebrity and politics, which as I blogged earlier, this booking challenged.

Could someone have decided that rolling out the red carpet for Tareq and Michaele Salahi was bad for the casino’s  image? Tenant clubs like Pure are being examined by landlord casinos now in a way that did not used to happen. And, it is interesting that Pure voiced a heretofore never expressed concern for the impact of their red carpets on Caesars operations. Why wasn’t this a problem for Britney Spears?

Clarke, also,  reports inside Pure the couple were jeered and booed by the crowd during their welcome address. That isn’t necessarily bad since taunting counts as entertainment for a Vegas crowd.  As a side note: Iggy Pop and the Stooges were booed a lot, too, back in the day. Maybe these two are just misunderstood performance artists. If so, Pure isn’t helping the Salahi family establish their artistic cred;  in the official summary of the night released to the press, Pure neglected to mention the booing.

Afterward, Clarke spoke to Tareq Salahi who sounded like a wacky conspiracy theorist offering up: “There’s a reason why the White House isn’t pushing the story.” Pushing the story? Is he serious? Don’t you know you are in Vegas because you are old news?

This is the problem with mixing political characters into the Vegas fantasy. This level of narcissism is typical of celebrities yet offensive in the real world. Rolling up the red carpet seems a smart way to reduce the embarrassment that this deluded man was given a platform by Pure to “push” his “story” that he and his wife crashing a party is more pressing than issues like war, economy and legislation.

So, the Salahi duo were invited to Pure as hosts, but not offered the traditional celebrity red carpet. Does that walk the line? It will be interesting to see if Pure and other Vegas nightclubs venture again into the territory of politics.